Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1887-01-08
A FRIENDS TRIBUTE.
The Remarks of Col. John II. Savage
on the Death Of james, P.
Thompson.
Nashville American.

4NdSHNllic AiuSIlCdu'
We have been requested to repub-
lish the following remarks of Col.
Savage made before the Supreme
Court of Tennessee upon the death of
James p. Thompson, of McMinnville,
who was lat the time of his death the
eldest member of the bar in the State.
The remarks of Col. Savage were
made in Janury, 1886. The subject
of the remarks was was at the time of
his death SO yearsold. Col. Savage
said:
If the honorable court will permit,
l will bring to its notice resolutions
passed by the McMinnville bar as a
memorial and tribute of respect to
the life and character of James p.
Thompson, who diedat McMinnville
on the I'd day of January last, and
was then supposed to be the oldest
living member of the Tennessee bar.
May it please yonr honor will say,
l am unacquainted with the custom
of this court in reference to such reso-
lutions, nor have / ever spoken in
public of the death of any person.
James p. Thompson was SO years of
age on the day of his death. The
time allotted to the life of man is 26,-
$50 days, Mr.. Thompson lived 33,545
days, which is 1926 days beyond the
limit of three score and ten years.
Ninety-three years is long time
to live, but considered in connection
with the idea of immortality, is a
mere dot or mathematical point in
the endless line of eternity-seventy
of such lives reaching back in the
shadows of the past, would ante-date
the creation of the world, as fixed by
Jewish chronicles.
In Mr.. Thompson's life no one day
brought to him the same things, or
things precisely like the things
brought by any other day. And also
such is human destiny that amongits
millions now on earth, and the bill
ions of men who have gone before,
no two men have seen alike in all
things or lived precisely the same
life.
Mr.. Thompson, in some respects,
differed from many men. He Meth
er emulated, rivaled, envied or hated
any man. The desire to supplant,
suppress or triumph over brother
lawyer was foreign TO hisnature. He
worked to live, to be just in himself,
and to do justice to others. Life and
death are the greatest ofall mysteries
about which the wise know no more
than the ignorant.
Modern science assumes to teach
that man has descended from some
ape-like progenitor. In the conflicts
of opinion / am on the side of the
angels, and prefer to consider man 81
a being with an immortal spirit, thai
will not perish as we suppose thu
brutes of the field perish. j rejec
the doctrine Of the Sadducees, who
taught that death was an eterna
sleep. Between humiliation anC
eternal punishment, think an i'm
mortal spirit would prefer eternallife
though full of pain, and amidstever
lasting fires, as some men teach.
Long before the Christian era, ant
before the great temple of Diana wa
built, the so-called barbaric tribes o
Thrace taught the doctrine that mel
never die; that the mystery which
men call death was the mere transi
ton Of the soul or immortal part o
man to better stage of existence in ;
brighter world.
Similar to this has been the com
mon belief of common men through
out the ages. If it is a fiction, it il
most beautiful, and prefer the com
mon opinion of the common men o
the earth to the doubts and fine spur
theories of men called learned.
there is no hereafter, the longest lifi
is not worth living.
Your honors have long held you
exalted positions, but you are no
looking back into the dead past-no
is there much thought among you
about the present. 1t is tomorrow
and your hope and expectation for tn,
future that most concerns you and il
which you live.
Assuming that there is a grea
Spirit, a Heavenly Father for all men
whose attributes are such as are re
vealed by the sermon on the mount
it follows that an honest man, VIII
has not acquired fame or riches re
CARELESS of the rights and lives ofmel
on1 tbn SiUhS and taorS of Xuonnan N N,